Teachers at Jewish Community Center preschool in Denver push for union

Margaret Osburn spends eight hours a day with a classroom full of preschool students.

She knows their birthdays. She’s on a first-name basis with their parents. She remembers the kids’ favorite foods, songs and colors. She cares for them when they’re sick and changes their diapers.

“I know these kids and I love them,” Osburn said.

Last year, she nearly quit.

The working conditions at the Staenberg-Loup Jewish Community Center’s Early Learning School in Denver were running her ragged, she said. The preschool was understaffed, Osburn said, and she worked long hours finishing required paperwork. Kids came to school sick, but administrators were reluctant to send them home for fear of pushback from paying families, she said.

“To have somebody who doesn’t know my student very well come in my classroom and disagree with me on whether a child is sick and interfere with what I feel is the best course of action for the child’s well-being is very disheartening and devaluing,” Osburn said.

Osburn and her colleagues wanted more of a voice at work. They started talking about forming a union in 2022 and garnered enough support to go public in February with 30 of the school’s 40 employees with teaching roles having signed on. The JCC did not voluntarily recognize the union, so the matter is going to a vote with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday.

Mike Sophir, chief executive officer of the Staenberg-Loup Jewish Community Center, declined an interview request from The Denver Post. Sophir said in an email that the JCC respects the rights of teachers and support staff to organize a union, but also understands there are some who oppose unionization who deserve to be heard as well.

“We will do our best to be sure that everyone’s views, for or against, are respected,” Sophir wrote.

Osburn and her coworkers aren’t the only Denver preschool teachers who have made a recent push to join a labor union.

Around 40,000 educators belong to the Colorado Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state. While some public preschool educators are union members through their districts, early childhood education teachers — many who work in private preschools or smaller-run operations — largely have been left out of union conversations.

Labor unions made headlines last year with the largest number of strikes in 23 years — and high-profile organizing. The highest unionization rates in 2023 were among workers in education, training and library occupations at 32.7% of the 16.2 million wage and salary workers represented by a union, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are 4,687 licensed preschools in the state, according to the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. The department does not track how many are unionized.

Colorado Education Association president and high school counselor Amie Baca-Oehlert said she thinks a preschool unionization push could be brewing.

“They’re seeing their counterparts in the public education system and thinking, ‘This is how they’ve benefited from access to a union,’” Baca-Oehlert said.

A preschool union shop

When Hunter Shelton and his fellow preschool teachers at OPENair Academy in Denver’s River North neighborhood researched how to form a union, they studied public school unionization resources.

“We got here because we were facing an industry that was not healthy,” Shelton said. “We started talking to each other and realizing there’s no reason why this can’t be a great place to be a teacher.”

Shelton cherishes exploring the world through his preschool students’ eyes. But understaffing, a lack of regularity in workers’ days and underpayment muddied his passion.

Shelton said employees tried talking with the administration about their concerns but were told there was no money in the budget.

“About two preschoolers cover the cost of my salary,” Shelton said.

OPENair Academy representatives did not respond to a request to be interviewed. The preschool voluntarily recognized its employees’ union in February. Now, they’re preparing for contract negotiations.

The staff of both OPENair Academy and the JCC are working with the Communication Workers of America for their guild business.

“It’s really important we have educators in there that feel respected and have a voice on the job and are able to address concerns so the kids can have a healthy learning experience,” said Anthony Scorzo, president of CWA’s Denver branch.

Not sold on unionization

Dawn Alexander, executive director of the Early Childhood Education Association, advocates for all licensed private preschools in the state through the trade association. The association provides resources, support and legislative representation for dues-paying members across 103 Colorado cities.

“Very much like a union, we go out there and pound the pavement to make a difference for programs,” she said.

Alexander said she recognizes that early childhood education is a low-paying field and that, despite programs to help pay for educators’ health insurance or retirement, many preschools can’t do so.

However, she wasn’t sold on unionizing.

“The thing about a union is it’s pressuring and making demands and saying we have a right to this, but when businesses are doing everything they can to support and sustain their staff and there is no more revenue available, I don’t know where the fix in that is,” Alexander said. “It’s a difficult place to be when public policy is saying, ‘Hey, this is how you should be serving workforce,’ but you know you can’t charge families more and you’re in this hard place and have property taxes to pay.”

There is a misconception that the owners of child care businesses rake in money, Alexander said, when they are often operating on slim profit margins.

“It breaks my heart when I talk to an owner who’s been in the industry for 30 to 40 years and spent through every bit of personal retirement funds just to try to sustain their business,” she said. “I see so many owners coming out of this without sustainable retirement lives.”

Ensuring basic rights

Baca-Oehlert equated a teachers union contract to a set of classroom rules. A contract lays out expectations and requirements for engaging in the job, which can benefit teachers and administration, she said.

“It’s really about ensuring you have basic rights and an avenue for addressing workplace concerns,” she said. “It’s about creating a positive work environment.”

Plus, the boost to teacher pay was undeniable, Baca-Oehlert said. Top salary for Colorado Education Association unions with a bargaining contract was 40% higher this school year than unions who do not have a bargaining contract, according to the CEA.